One of the saddest things about our country, is that very often good free advice that will benefit the nation, is simply ignored by those at the helm of affairs - either because it doesn't benefit them directly, or fails to increase the net worth of their regime's crony-capitalist pals.
Take the case of Intercity STC for example, the partially divested state-owned bus company, which was once the transport sector's leading passenger bus company. Alas, it is now a pale shadow of itself - and reeling from being over-leveraged.
It has been crippled by a daft bus-purchase decision, taken during the Kufuor-era, which benefited some of that regime's crony-capitalist rip-off merchants mightily, but did not redound to the company's benefit.
Incredibly, and typical of the unfathomable greed and high-level corruption of the Kufuor-era, the untested FAW buses were totally unsuited for our roads, and lacked the durability to serve the purpose for which they were purchased - provide years of reliable service carrying fare-paying passengers in comfort across Ghana and beyond.
The bank loan taken from the National Investment Bank (NIB) to purchase those unsuitable Chinese-made FAW buses that lasted only two years, has ended up crippling Intercity STC, unfortunately.
The question is, could the NIB not be persuaded to take a combination of long-term government paper, and a conversion of part of the loan into an equity stake in a GAF-owned Intercity STC, dear reader?
And could all those who have won orders for judgement-debt payments from the law courts, against Intercity STC, not also be persuaded to accept long-term government paper as settlement of those debts? The practicality of that arrangement being that they could have their money today, selling them to those who will discount those instruments for cash.
(Needless to say, the crooks who killed off Ghana Airways in order to asset-strip it during the NPP's tenure, would have eventually done the same with Intercity STC, if the Kufuor & Co. tribal-supremacist cabal that dominates the NPP had been returned to power in the December 2008 elections. But I digress.)
You would think that those in charge of our country's affairs, now grappling with turbulence from frequent public-sector employee strikes, would seize the golden opportunity offered by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust's (SSNIT) decision to divest itself of its 80 percent stake in Intercity STC - and move quickly to acquire it for the commercial wing of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).
It is a strategic transport sector asset, that will serve as rainy-day-insurance, which will enable the government to have the capability to keep the nation moving - in case there ever is a full-blown transport sector strike, engineered by its political opponents, in order to bring it to its knees.
I am flabbergasted to hear that the usual negative cries of "we don't have money" have already started coming from the corridors of power - when government appointees have been urged to quickly take over Intercity STC and hand it over to the commercial wing of the GAF.
God give us patience. Why do so many of our political leaders seldom think creatively, when faced with such nation-building challenges? Will SSNIT not happily accept long-term government paper, with a decent coupon, in exchange for its 80 percent stake in Intercity STC, I ask?
I repeat my question: Has it never struck the geniuses who now rule us, that to buy Intercity STC and hand it over to the military to run, will provide it with a strategic asset, which, should the need ever arise, will enable the government of the day to keep the nation moving, regardless, were Ghana's private passenger bus companies to embark on a nationwide strike, for whatever spurious reason its mostly pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) owners were to conjure up - ostensibly in protest against high fuel prices, should the world price of oil soar to the US$160 per barrel, which the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Managing Director, Christine Largarde, has said it might spike to, for example?
Let the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of President Mills move quickly to purchase Intercity STC, and hand it over to the Ghana Armed Forces.
In their very capable hands, Intercity STC will keep the nation moving, when the transport sector grinds to a halt and passenger bus companies stop operating, because of a nationwide strike. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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